One Inch Apart
by Luthien'sLight
Summary: Wherein Annabeth doesn't have a lot of friends, doesn't like making friends, but Percy makes her make friends. Also, Percy is shirtless a lot. Random twoshot for Percabeth Fluff Rated T for cheesy romance. Cali Percabeth. For Vixen, because she's amazing. Nothing else needs to be said *drops mic*


**Chapter 1: Strangers**

**Intro A/N/disclaimer: Once again, I do not own PJO. Ricky, please don't sue me. Story is told in Annabeth's Point Of View.**

**Edited 9/20/20**

**Editado 20/9/20**

* * *

Let's face it, vacations can kind of suck. Sure, it's cool to not have to go to school, and even as a college student Annabeth could appreciate that. On the other hand though... it was like you couldn't wait for vacation to show up and once it did you had nothing to do. World's biggest expectation vs reality failure. However, Annabeth had enrolled in some summer college courses (like most of her classmates, graduating early was her only hope to avoid too much debt), and was suffering both from summer boredom AND hate of school.

So here Annabeth was, watching Five Feet Apart for the millionth time (Cole Sprouse never got old), and eating out of a tub of ice-cream to counteract the insane heat that seemed to ooze from the walls, the floor, and her own face. Her own fat, sweaty, ugly face. That worthless A/C repairman really should've been here by now. And this apartment really, really needed A/C desperately. So did she.

She looked at herself in the mirror on the other side of the room. Making a split second decision, she paused the movie and hastily made all the necessary preparations before jumping in the shower, making the water as cold as possible. Right as she finished, her doorbell rang. Wrapping a towel around herself, she walked to the door and opened it, expecting the repairman to be on the other side of it.

"About time you-"

It wasn't the repairman. It was just a guy around her age. A really, really, REALLY cute guy. "Who," she noticed, "looks like an ever cuter version of Cole Sprouse, if that's even possible." The boy looked uncomfortable, his face a little flushed, looking anywhere but in her direction.

"Um, hi, I'm new to the building and, well, my A/C doesn't work, and I thought maybe someone here knew how to fix it, and so I knocked on your door and then you opened and you're, um, not so dressed and I'm really sorry and- OOOH is that Cole Sprouse?"

Annabeth just stared at him mutely. "He really does look like a cuter version of Cole Sprouse..."

The guy had wavy, slightly mussed up black hair, tan skin, and sparkling green eyes. And he was shirtless. Did she mention he was shirtless? He was shirtless. And he clearly worked out. And he was a cuter version of-

He interrupted her train of thought. Not that it was a very complex one, to be fair.

"You watching Five Feet Apart? I've seen that like a million times! Can I come in?"

And he was then somehow sitting on her couch, jabbering on about FFA, and she was sipping tea with him, nodding along to whatever he was saying. She decided to pay attention. Well, as much as was possible, because he was STILL shirtless. After about fifteen minutes of small talk, he finally stood up.

"Thanks for the hospitality, but I gotta scoot out of here, I've been infringing on your," He looked at her and blushed again, "uh, privacy, I'll leave you to it. What's your name, by the way?"

"Annabeth"

"Can I call you Beth?"

"No"

"How about Ann?"

"No"

"Annie?"

"NO"

He gave her a little smile. "Alright then, see you later, Annabeth."

He closed the door quietly behind him, and Annabeth could hear him walking away. She was a little shell-shocked, if she was honest with herself. Also, he DID look remarkably like Cole Sprouse.

It wasn't till later that night that she realized that she hadn't gotten his name.

* * *

A couple of weeks later, Annabeth was walking out of her architecture class — possibly the longest and most frustrating she'd had all year. And seeing as it was almost the end of summer, that was saying a LOT. She had barely understood the concept, and had only gotten an A- in her quiz.

"At this rate, I'll never break my A+++ average!"

Despair abounded. So much despair, in fact, that it must have clouded her vision, because she found herself falling down the steps of Perloff Hall; her books fell everywhere. She began scrambling to pick them up, when Drew Tanaka passed by, walking with... him. Luke. Drew leered at Annabeth and sashayed her way past, tightly holding onto Luke's arm possessively.

Annabeth glared at Drew's back, head filled with delightful fantasies of punching the offensive brat's face in. And then reality intervened. She sighed, and bent down to pick up a book. A hand landed on the book before hers could. A tan hand, with a leanly muscled arm attached to it. Which led to...

Oh, gods. He had his shirt on, but it really didn't make any difference. In fact, the short just seemed to glorify what was underneath even more than if he had been bare-chested. He didn't even need to look up, because it was quite clear it was the boy from the apartment. She looked up anyway.

"Hey! Annabeth, right?"

"Uh, yeah. What're you doing here?"

"I go here! I'm taking marine biology! I transferred over from Columbia." He looked at the building, and then back at her. "I assume you take architecture?"

What were the mother. Forking. Odds.

"Well," she thought, "UCLA IS the biggest college near to our apartments..."

Still.

Crap. His eyes were gorgeous. And his face. And his body. Especially his...

"Stop." She told herself. "NOW."

"You got any plans?" He asked her.

She gave a little laugh. "Ice cream. That's pretty much it."

He helped her up. "You wanna go get a coffee or something then? I have some friends waiting up on me."

Laughing, she gave him a little shove. "I don't even know your name."

"Percy Jackson! Now you know it, let's go get coffee!"

She pursed her lips. "I really shouldn't-"

"Oh pish-posh, you-"

"Pish-posh? Are you a seventeenth century stuffy British woman?"

"Yes. Now, you're coming with me, no questions allowed! Let's go!"

"This seems like an awfully good example of how people get kidnapped."

"Come on, I swear I won't kidnap you. I'll stay in front of you the whole time. I'm gonna introduce you to some people — some friends."

"Oh, I don't know, I'm not good with people... I think it'd be better if I-"

He was already dragging her with him. "Come on!"

She tried to stop a smile. "You know, it's often considered rude to interrupt."

"To be fair, it's MORE rude to decline a generous offer to hang out"

"I don't even know you!"

"So let's change that. What, you got anything better to do?"

Really, Annabeth thought, she didn't. She sighed and decided there was no getting out of this. "Fine."

* * *

Three hours later, in a random coffee shop, Annabeth found herself being pulled towards a group of people chatting loudly in the corner. A short, elfin Latino boy jumped up at the sight of Percy.

"Hey! My compadre! You finally decided to get a girlfriend?" He looked Annabeth over. "Nice catch, my man, I approve."

Annabeth was about to make an angry response about assuming people were dating, and the objectification of women, but Percy (to her surprise) got there first.

Blushing, he shoved his friend playfully. "Just because I bring someone doesn't mean we're dating, Leo. And stop referring to girls as something to be caught or one, dude — that's why girls aren't ever interested in you." Leo groaned but nodded, and Percy sent Annabeth a slight smirk. "She had nothing to do today but ice-cream, so I decided to bring her along to meet you guys. She's my neighbor."

Leo looked suitably chastened. "Sorry, hermano." He turned to Annabeth. "And you too, señorita." A little gleam flashed in his eyes, and then disappeared. Annabeth wondered why for a second before he asked "If you two aren't dating, I'm a very available and handsome bachelor. You up for it, gorgeous?" He grinned at her expression. "Don't lie," he said, motioning at himself, "You know you want a piece of this."

Percy looked about to explode, but another girl looked up from the table. She was dark-haired, dressed in dark clothes, and wore a dark scowl on her face. "Leo... I swear, if you don't stop messing with the new girl, I will beat your face in."

He looked sheepish again, before giving a side wink at Annabeth. "Yes ma'am, please don't hurt me."

They started bickering, as the rest of the group looked on, amused. Strange as it was, Annabeth felt comfortable already amidst the banter. There was no need for her to talk too much or be too friendly, she could just lie back and relax. They were giving her space, and she valued that — more than she would be likely to admit.

The argument ended with Thalia chasing Leo around the coffee shop (which was thankfully devoid of occupation besides Percy's group of friends) and whacking his head with the notebook she had been drawing in.

Jason was the stereotypical blond, handsome, Cali "dude" who you just KNEW was in the popular group when he was in high-school. The girl he seemed to be dating was a gorgeous, vivacious and slightly crazy girl by the name of Piper. The group was a little insane, a little chaotic, and more than a little amazing, in Annabeth's opinion. If this was what all people were like, she would have hung out with people more.

After coffee, they all took a walk. It was on the walk (in which they passed by an aquarium) that Annabeth discovered that Percy was fascinated in Marine Biology, and his studies in that area were actually the reason for his transfer to UCLA. They walked back to their apartments, and after chatting for a while, the number of people started to trickle out.

Thalía, the last to leave before Percy, whispered in her ear.

"Just say yes to the poor boy. He may not look it, but he's nervous as hell."

"What?"

"Just say yes. Or I might hurt you. So say yes."

Rather nonplussed, Annabeth turned to Percy. They talked for a couple more minutes, and Percy decided he was going to turn in. At his door, however, he paused for a minute and then turned to face her.

"Hey, so today was pretty fun! Do you want to maybe get a coffee sometime this next week?"

She smiled. "Sure. I didn't COMPLETELY hate your group, so you're okay. I'd like to hang out with them again. When would everyone meet up?"

He looked a little nervous as he laughed. "Um, no. I mean... us. Like, you and me and that's it. You down? Maybe go to the beach?"

Annabeth paused. WTF(**A/N: Fudge, you know I don't curse, right?**)? They had barely met and he was already asking her out, and probably expecting her to kiss him and then she'd slap him. But maybe she wanted to kiss him and cuddle while watching FFA, and do things that might be fun and- well, to be fair, he had just asked her to meet up for coffee, the rest was her imagination filling up the blank spaces. She reasoned it might just be a hangout/know your neighbor type of thing. She nodded.

"Okay. But unless you're handing something to me," she grinned, "You stay two feet away from me. No touching, nothing weird."

He looked offended. "How dare you assume that I'm weird! I mean I totally am, but you just went and ASSUMED that! Weaaaak!"

"I could just say no..."

He looked panicked. "No! I'm sorry! Assume what you like! I take it back! Also pass me your number so we can text, 'aight?"

She gave it to him, and he put his number into her contacts as well.

As they turned in, Percy waved goodnight. Annabeth waved back, and went into her apartment. About to jump into bed (haha who was she kidding she never jumped in bed that would be careless and potentially harmful she got into bed carefully thank you very much) (**A/N:** **don't sue me if you get hurt jumping into your bed**), and watch some TV, she felt her cell phone ring. Pulling it out, she saw she had one new message. Opening it up, this greeted her:

**_Today, at 1:30 am_**

PJ Pajama Time Percy:

_Get to bed. I know you're going to want to watch TV, you always watch one episode of Grey's Anatomy before you sleep — I can hear it through the wall. Did you know you'll benefit more from the hour of sleep than the hour of show? Fascinating, huh?_

_NOW GET TO BED I DONT WANT U TIRED_

She texted him back, if only to put him in his place with a classic zinger.

Annabeth C:

_Shut UP Percy! Fricking stalker!_

PJ Pajama Time Percy:

_Glad to see we've reached a close enough relationship that you feel free to yell at me. Remember, I want us both rested, and our walls are thin. Night :)_

It was just a smiley face, Annabeth knew. But, come on! It was a smiley face!

* * *

**Outro A/N:**

**SOOOOOO THERE YOU HAVE IT! TO all of you who have been waiting for my other story to update, I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea when that's finna happen. I was just about to begin, when my parents confiscated my cellphone (where I write EVERYTHING) and then when I got it back I decided to write this because Vixen 1.- You know you deserve it and 2.- You've had a lot of stress lately and you need at least SOME relief. R&R And tell me what you thought and how you want the kinda-date to go! Obviously, Vixen gets prioritized. *sings completely off-tune* VIXENNNNN YOU'RE AWESOMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEE I HOPE YOU FEEL BETTER AND SAY HI TO FOXY FOR MEEEEEEEEE**

**Okay that was weird, I'm sorry, I'm done now.**


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